


Ty's dinosaur

by herondaleraxxet



Series: Californian Letters [2]
Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, The Wicked Powers Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Cristina x Diego is also mentioned, I'm adopting Ty, Just Ty triying to keep it cool, M/M, Perfect Diego being perfect, but really briefly - Freeform, ghost!livvy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24663352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herondaleraxxet/pseuds/herondaleraxxet
Summary: Tiberius Blackthorn is having tons on fun at the Scholomance. He is learning new things, making friends, and he even has a cool pet! The only thing bothering him is the ever-growing pile of letters for Kit in his nightstand. It's not like Kit wants him to send them, though. Or does he?
Relationships: Diego Rosales & Tiberius Blackthorn, Livia Blackthorn & Tiberius Blackthorn, Tiberius Blackthorn & Anush Joshi, Tiberius Blackthorn/Kit Rook
Series: Californian Letters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783216
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	Ty's dinosaur

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I had already written a fic on Kit's point of view and someone told me it would be nice to read something similar from Ty's POV. If you want to read Kit's fic, it is the part one in my "Californian Letters" series, in which this fic is the second part. You don't necessarily have to read it to understand what's going on here, but it coud be interesting! I've tried my best, but there could be several grammar or vocabulary mistakes as English is not my mother tongue -feel free to remark any mistake you might see! I'm also on tumblr as @herondaleraxxet

Ty was having a hard time trying to study.

Back in the LA Institute, everything was much easier. He had always been a bookworm, so studying wasn’t a difficult task to him. In fact, he liked it. He liked the feeling of the pages turning over, the scent of old dusty books, unopened for many years; he loved spending hours and hours next to the library picture window, from where he could see the californian beach in all its splendour. Julian usually went check on him every each hour, to see if he was doing alright: he brought him sweets to keep him content and ruffled his hair. And all of his siblings asked him for help when they didn’t know something, just because they knew he loved looking things up, in case he didn’t know them already. It was his thing.

Studying was quite a different matter at the Scholomance, though.

The first days, Ty had tried to go to the library by himself. He didn’t like going anywhere for the first time alone: it felt intruding, specially in a place he was very much new in. But Livvy had been encouraging him to go to the library ( _c’mon, Ty, you know you want to. Are you going to stay like this in your room forever?_ ) and so he went. It wasn’t a nice experience, though: everyone had stared at him, and the librarian in charge was an old, dull-looking man that had told him off because apparently Ty needed a teacher’s permission to grab certain books. The incident had been terribly appalling for the poor boy, and he had decided to not come back in a long, long time. Instead, he would search everything he needed to on the Internet, and asked his teachers if he had the opportunity. But nothing beats the feeling of a book giving you knowledge, passing it onto you. So Ty started to become more and more reluctant to the act of studying itself, although Livvy loved it now that she could teach him how to use a computer.

Nevertheless, this was an special occasion. He needed some information on transfiguration magic -Warlock Studies was a tough matter- and asked his teacher Catarina Loss to give him a permission to the library most ancient books. He could have asked her for such information itself, but he was still pretty much uncomfortable around anyone that wasn’t his family. Or Kit. Or just his family, to be honest. 

That was the reason he was now staring at a giant pile of old, worm-bitten magic manuals. He had spent the last three hours reading and re-reading everything he found useful; the transfiguration issue was surprisingly complex, and apparently a controversial topic for tons of magicians all over the world. He had read opinion essays ( _is it ethical to transfigure into something with a sentimental value attached to it?_ ), instruction lists, and dozens of biographies of important warlocks and witches. Still, there was so many books on the topic that he had read several contradictions on it. This was something he loved as well: to contrast information, to use up every and each one of the clues he had to find what the truth was. All in all, it was being a pretty entertaining evening.

The library was unexpectedly empty at that hour, with only a few students reviewing for the upcoming december exams. They were not very far from Ty’s table, and he could hear the scratch of the pens writing over the large, black Scholomance-branded notebooks. Livvy had long ago disappeared to go for a “walk”: she didn’t particularly enjoy the Carpathians’s snow-covered mountains, but she hated it when Ty didn’t talk to her for a long time, and so she usually disappeared in occasions like these. Ty didn’t blame her: if he were a ghost, he wouldn’t love the prospect of spending several hours on a quiet library, not able to grab books nor read them, without talking to anyone. 

He leaned back, feeling tired all of sudden. It would be soon curfew time, and he would have to go back to his room. To his boring, cramped room. To sleep.

He grabbed the last book with a sigh -the only one he hadn’t read yet. It was small and the pages were viciously shabby, as if it had been read by many others before him. The title was _Transfiguration 101: A Brief Introduction to The Changing Thing_. Ty wondered if there was somewhere where magic was actually taught as a subject: the Spiral Labyrinth, perhaps. It was a very secretive institution, whose secrets kept hidden for all of those who weren’t a part of the warlock community. Only a few representants of the Clave could know what it was like -the Consul, he imagined, and maybe the Inquisitor as well. Not even the Centurions were allowed to acquire such information. 

He opened the book, curiosity quivering inside of him. When he did so, a note fell from the very middle of the pages, a single greyish piece of paper. It landed on the table beneath him. Ty blinked. 

With a frown, he grabbed the note. It was written in a stylish sort of way, the letters elegant and insolent. The piece of paper itself was quite crumpled, and also looked like it had been read many times. A single phrase was written on it:

_“Nunca podría olvidar tu rostro, ni quiero hacerlo. Extrañar me da aliento. Extrañarte es mi motivación en esta vieja escuela._

_-D.S.”_

Ty wasn’t sure of what it meant. He had taken some Spanish classes back in LA, and Cristina as well had tried to teach them all some basic phrases. He knew _extrañar_ meant to miss someone or something, and _escuela_ was school. But he couldn’t translate the whole phrase. He shrugged, putting the note in his pocket, and concentrated on the book in front of him. He could translate it later.

Later that night Ty sat on the tiny chair of his desk -way too small for his long legs, ever growing- and sprode out the note, carefully folded into a small rectangle. He re-read it and frowned, stretching out his arms to turn on the old computer he kept in his room. It buzzed with electricity, with the familiar noise of the Windows logo. 

“Where did you find it again?” asked Livvy with her head tilted to the side. She had come back from her walk long ago, and was playing with Irene, Ty’s pet lynx. She had grown out considerably the last few months, and it was getting pretty difficult to hide her. Not that it was absolutely necessary to do so: most of Ty’s teachers knew about his pet, and while not all of them liked Irene they didn’t dislike her either. Both Ty and Livvy had grown fond of her, as Irene could see Livvy. 

“It was kept in a book. A manual on transfiguration magic I had to consult for my classes” Ty opened the Google window and typed for the Google translation web. Livvy laughed behind him “I thought you hated Google translator. You would rather spend years searching up for a word in a big old dictionary than using it”.

“There is no dictionaries here in my room that I can use” said Ty matter-of-factly. He was now typing the words, his long fingers rapidly pressing the keyboard. “Besides, this is plain Spanish, not Ancient Greek or Latin”.

He clicked the _translate_ button and the words in English appeared in the screen, a white bright light in the dark room. _“I could never forget your face, nor do I want to. Missing gives me encouragement. Missing you is my motivation in this old school.”_

Livvy whistled. “Is it a romantic note, then? Who do you think this _D. S_ guy is?

Ty closed the Google window, satisfied. There was nothing for him like the feeling of getting something right. “Diego Rosales, obviously. Cristina’s _Perfect Diego_ ”.

Livvy blinked, a little bewildered. “Is that so? I mean, not that I think you’re wrong or anything, Ty. But it might be as well Daniel Stephen, or perhaps Dolores Slytherin. See, there is tons of combinations to those two letters. You can’t just assume-”

“What are the chances that an Spanish-speaking person studies at the Scholomance while missing someone like Diego Rosales did when him and Cristina broke up back when she came to LA? Also, Slytherin is straight-up from _Harry Potter_ . That’s just lame” Ty interrupted her. He didn’t sound aggressive. He sounded as if he didn’t believe any other answer was possible to the riddle; as if he already was a 100% sure, and his eyes were heated with excitement. Livvy knew well that look: she called it the _“Sherlock”_ look.

“Ok. But why would Diego Rosales keep a note in a book?” Livvy floated around Irene, who was trying to reach her ghostly form. “He is basically perfect, you know. He wouldn’t want anyone to know what his feelings of longing were”.

“Certainly” Ty agreed “and I think he’d be pretty annoyed to find out he left it there. I simply think that he used it as a bookmark, or something. He told me he took Warlock Studies as well. So he must have been studying when he forgot the note inside of that book”.

“If you say so” Livvy shrugged. “It’s not like this note is gonna change you life or anything, or is it? Even though I find it funny that you had to come across this one specific _“I miss the love of my life”_ message when you yourself are so much in denial right now”. He grinned at Ty, who simply rolled his eyes.

“You can’t say I’m in love everytime I have an small interaction with someone who is not from our family” he stated. “Anush is nice. But I don’t feel any romantic attraction towards him”.

“Oh, I didn’t mean Anush. I must say that you are annoyingly slow on that matter. But I meant Kit, and you missing him”.

Ty raised an eyebrow “I never said I didn’t miss him”.

“So? What about these letters?” asked Livvy while pointing dramatically to the pile of letter on the small nightstand next to Ty’s bed. They were all ordered chronologically, and looked neat and clean, with Ty’s letter being quite round and fine. 

Ty had been writing letters to Kit since Livvy told him to do so, a few months ago. In these letters he told Kit about the things he was learning at the Scholomance, how he felt everyday and things that reminded him of Kit, such as songs he discovered in the common room CD section or characters of books he read. He never mentioned Livvy neither Anush, because he didn’t feel like Kit would appreciate it. Nevertheless, he didn’t send them. Never. 

Livvy had once said that they reminded her of a diary: as if they were not to keep communication with the Herondale boy but to keep a record of his life. Ty didn’t think of them that way: they were _meant_ to be read by Kit, if they were to be sent. 

“What about the letters?” Ty started. He didn’t like how Livvy seemed like she knew something he didn’t. He was quite used to the feeling, but not from his twin sister: it felt as if everyone but him shared the funniest joke in the world, and laughed at him for not being able to understand it.

“You obviously miss him. So send the letters, he’ll reply to you, and you two can be friends like you were before. And that’s it!”

Ty stood up, clearly bothered. He hated it when anyone told him what to do, specially Livvy. She would never understand him. She couldn’t. _But again,_ he thought _, this is all my fault_. He grabbed his earphones, frustrated, and shot Livvy a cold look “I don’t wanna talk about this”.

“Fine. But you’ll wake up and the dinosaur will still be there!” She said in a loud voice while a comforting classical tune started playing in his ears.

December passed in a blur. Te spent most of the month studying for the exams and saying goodbye to the Scholomance before going back to LA for the Christmas holidays; it was the first time he came back after going abroad to study and he was definitely excited. He successfully managed to pass all of his text (all of them with highly remarkable A++’s) and not to die in the trying. He finally got used to go to the library all by himself, although he preferred it when Anush was by his side, his steady, comfortable presence reminding him that he wasn’t alone. He and the other boy had been friends since the incident with Irene back in October, and Ty had grown quite fond of him. He usually wanted Anush to keep him company, and the two boys trained, took their meals and studied together. This last month as well they had been together, and helped each other study. Ty had been surprised to discover that Anush was so good at Warlock Studies, the subject in which he usually struggled the most -not only because it was difficult, but also because it brought up unpleasant memories regarding certain necromancy issue.

Having to say goodbye the last day of the term _was_ surprisingly hard, but Anush gave him his telephone number and a slight smile when Ty told him he would miss him. At last Ty parted, feeling happy that he had managed to make a friend there.

Christmas had also been pretty good. It was the first one since Livvy died and at first everyone had been in a bad mood. None of them cried, at least in public, and didn’t talk about her either; but it was obvious that they lacked something. Nevertheless, both Julian and Emma tried really hard to make things nice for everyone. They had received tons of guests in the Institute as well, such as the Penhallows and the Rosales families, which included the happy trio that were Cristina, Mark and Kieran. Diego Rosales was nowhere to be found, anyways, and his mother told Ty that he had a Centurion-related mission.

Julian and Emma had come home from their year abroad (Julian wanted to spend Christmas with his family) and had lots of stories to tell the others. Christmas Eve would have been perfect if it wasn’t for Livvy’s absence, but there were tons of people to celebrate and it definitely made things better. Ty didn’t usually like crowds, but he felt strangely comforted by all of those people, and he had Livvy by his side. He didn’t know if it was sad for Livvy that nobody could see her, and if it was she did a great job hiding it. Ty knew that she was hurt, but neither of them wanted to talk about it. 

When he finally returned to the Scholomance in January, he was reassured, and felt ready to face the upcoming year. Ragnor Fell, another of his teachers and also Irene’s caretaker while Ty was in LA (he didn’t want his pet to feel stressed about changing her environment, and two weeks of holidays weren’t worthy taking the risk) gave him a Sherlock Holmes’ first edition as a Christmas gift, and Catarina Loss also stopped by his room when he arrived to congratulate him on his good marks. She had spent the Christmas at Devon with the Carstairs family and Kit, but Ty didn’t want to ask her about it.

In conclusion, everything was good. He had a friend, his family backing him up and his sister -even if she wasn’t exactly corporeal. He even had a pet lynx! 

The only thing bothering Ty was the “dinosaur” in his room, like Livvy would call it. Whenever he woke up in the middle of the night, the pile of letters were there on his nightstand, every day bigger, and looked at him in a menacing way. He hadn’t stopped writing Kit, and with the time the letters became longer, their content deeper. Ty wanted to talk to him, to tell him what he was like in the Scholomance, with Livvy, with himself. It was nice with Anush: he didn’t make many questions, and was always there for him. He was a good friend. But Ty didn’t want a friend. He wanted Kit. He found himself missing his touch, the way their arms bumped when walking side by side, the way he rubbed his back when there were lots of people. In a room full of people, Kit managed to make it feel like it was just the two of them. And Ty missed that. It wasn’t just his touch he missed, though: he missed their talks, Kit always showing him new stuff and they both laughing at the dumbest thing, exploring beach caves with him, laying in the roof of the Institute sharing secrets, words. _Glass, twin, apple, whisper, stars, crystal, shadow, lilt. Cloud, secret, highway, hurricane, mirror, castle, thorns. Ty. Kit._ He had already lost count of how many nights he had spent staring at his ceiling, waiting for his courage to send the letters to finally show up, so he could befriend Kit again, and never whisper those words to himself all alone anymore.

But he couldn’t. So the pile kept on getting bigger and bigger, and each day he spent longer at writing them. All of January felt like a nightmare, and he told Livvy and the others it was because he missed LA, but the reality was very different. He used to unfold the little greyish note that he had found in the library sometimes, just to remember himself that he was not the only one struggling with these kind of thoughts. He kept it in his pocket all the time, and it felt reassuring, comfortable. _Missing gives me encouragement_. He couldn’t relate to that, but still, it was nice to read.

“Are you ready?” asked Anush, standing up. Ty and him were at the cafeteria, hurrying to finish the breakfast. Today was a very special day: Centurions, the former students of the Scholomance, already graduated with honours, came to visit the school, and they offered talks of encouragement and shared shadowhunter advice with the students. Both Ty and Anush had Runology in twenty minutes, and a Centurion was delivering a talk on new runes, all of them by Clary Fairchild, from the New York Institute. She had an special ability to create new runes, and it was the Centurion’s duty to try them on before any other shadowhunter. 

“Yes” Ty stood up as well, carrying the red tray with his left hand. He glimpsed Livvy through the window curtains, floating around while poking into other student’s conversations. “Do you wanna go first? I’ll leave the trays by the dumpster.”

“Alright. See you in a bit” he smiled and grabbed his bag, leaving through the wooden cafeteria doors.

Ty took the trays to the dumpster and waited by the queue, his foot tapping impatiently the floor. He didn’t like waiting, let alone _waiting in a queue_ , but it was always Anush who did it for him and he was trying to overcome these little challenges anyways: going to the library alone, raising his hand in class, waiting in a queue. He had tried to train without his earphones the last week, but that was still a big barrier for him.

“Tiberius! What a lovely surprise!”

Ty turned his back to find himself looking at Diego Rosales, former Scholomance student, one of the youngest Shadowhunters to graduate from there. _Of course,_ he thought, _he must have come with the rest of them._ Most of the Centurions were now locked in Idris with the Cohort as decided at the new Consul’s election, but there were still some of them who remained loyal to the Clave, Diego Rosales among them.

“Hi” greeted Ty, feeling the note in his pocket like it was a heavy weight “are you giving talks too?”

“Yep” he smiled, the classic Perfect Diego smile that made his sister Livvy and every other sane girl go crazy “I’m delivering talks on Faerie politics and Warlock Studies. Do you take any of these subjects?”

“I have Warlock Studies at ten.” Diego smiled again “then I guess I’ll see you there, Tiberius”.

Ty lifted his weight, uncomfortable. “Yes” he said, avoiding Diego’s look. It didn’t upset Diego: he knew Ty wasn’t comfortable in situations like these. He liked him: Ty reminded him of a much calmer, smarter version of himself.

Diego nodded, satisfied, and turned around to leave the cafeteria. Ty stared at his back and for horrible, never-ending seconds caressed the note in his pocket, feeling the rush of millions of thoughts and questions inside of him.

“Wait!” he cried. Diego turned to him again, puzzled. “I need to talk with you about something. Something _important_.”

“Uhm. Okay? Sure, Tiberius. What is it?”

Ty blushed. He could feel the stare of the rest of students in the queue, shamelessly looking at him and Diego.

“Eh” the note in his pocket jumped, furiously, and he _desperately_ needed to get out of that situation, but also to know all the answer to his questions. “Can we talk after Warlock Studies? I have to meet a friend just now”.

Diego didn’t seem as awkward as Ty. “Fine” he said. “I’ll see you later, then.”

Just as expected, Diego’s talk was _perfect_. More than perfect: it was inspirational, contained just the perfect amount of information and made every and each one of the Warlock Studies’ course want to dedicate their lives to that specific matter. 

Livvy hang around, casually sneaking out of the windows when Diego’s talk became way too technical and waving at Ty through the glass. She had been excited to find out that Diego Rosales had come to the Scholomance, and decided to come with Ty when he asked him about the note. It was by far one of the best interesting experiences she would have in her dull, ghostly life, and Diego was _super_ hot, so why not take advantage of it?

“Thank you so much, Diego” said Catarina Loss, the Warlock Studies teacher, when he finished talking “that has been so interesting. I recall when you were a little kid, always getting into fights and so on. And look at you know! Such a gentleman.” A few girls in the class gave a languising sigh, looking at Diego with heart-shaped eyes. “Ok, now. Raise your hand if you have any question for Mr. Rosales.”

Diego answered all of the questions with his charming way of explaining things, both effective and clarifying. Anush had a lot of questions to ask, too. He and Diego had met some time ago, when Anush was in the Cohort and Diego was a prisoner of Zara Dearborn. He had once asked for forgiveness to Diego and his brother Jaime, whom the Cohort tortured in prison, but the Rosales brothers and him were now in good terms as Anush had left them a stele to heal Jaime’s wounds. After that Anush had run away from the Cohort, and fought along the shadowhunters and downworlders in the Imperishable Fields. And so, they forgave him. He was surprised when Ty told him that he had to meet Diego after the class, but didn’t ask: Anush knew better than trying to meddle in Ty’s life. If Ty wanted him to know what he was up to, he would tell him.

When the last question was answered, Catarina Loss clapped his hands “alright guys! Class dismissed.” Anush shot him a quick glance and followed the rest of the students, who were hurrying to get the first to the cafeteria. It was lunch time, but Ty didn’t feel hungry. He felt rather anxious, his hands nervously at his sides. He had spent the whole hour fidgeting in his seat, the note in his pocket burning him alive. It was not that he wasn’t interested in the talk -he was very interested. It was that he couldn’t stop thinking about his own, uncontrollable feelings, and how another entirely different person such as Perfect Diego himself could experiment something similar. _Missing gives me encouragement. Missing gives me encouragement._ But how could it be? Missing was nothing but a silly, hurtful feeling. He didn’t want to miss Kit anymore. Never ever again.

Catarina gave him a slightly encouraging smile and left the room, carrying a pile of old books Diego had used during the talk. Diego waved goodbye at her, and then turned to Ty, with his arms crossed on his chest. He didn’t look angry or annoyed, just curious. He approached Ty’s desk and Livvy instantly flew to his side, probably both to protect his brother and admire Diego’s biceps.

“So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?” Diego gave him a worried smile. 

Ty thought quickly about the best way of putting it into words. People usually warned him that every person was different in their own way, and therefore didn’t react the same when being confronted about things they may dislike. Livvy had also advised him not be too straight-forward, because it wasn’t Diego’s fault that he had found a love note that he wrote probably years ago, and Diego had every right to feel offended.

“I found something that I think belongs to you” started Ty. Diego’s smile disappeared, but he was still offering that kind look he used to. “And I’ve been thinking a lot about it. It’s a love note, I think.”

Diego laughed. “You’re gonna have to be more specific on that, buddy. I write tons of love notes”. 

Livvy snorted “of course he does”. Ty ignored her. “I found it while going through Warlock Studies manuals” he handed it to him and bit his bottom lip “I don’t mean to intrude”.

Diego’s frown deepened. “You are being pretty intrusive right now, Tiberius. But it’s fine.” He proceed to read the note, and then sighed. “This was for Tina” he sounded apologetic. Ty felt like he was going to be sick. “I know” he looked down, twisting his fingers. 

“Tiberius, look at me” he did, and Diego smiled at him. “I’m not angry at you. What did you want to talk about this note?”

Livvy shot him a worried look, one that said _“I have your back”._ Ty gulped “What was in missing Cristina that was so reassuring? How could you ever find comfort on missing someone?” he spoke hastily, the words unstoppable. Diego blinked. Ty felt very exposed.

“I always thought of Cristina as someone I could always go back to” Diego tried to explain “but in the end she wasn’t that someone. So I was wrong.” Ty scowled. He wasn’t particularly interested in Perfect Diego’s love life, and this topic was incredibly embarrassing. “Serves you right for meddling in someone else’s life” Livvy muttered. 

Ty stood straight. “But still, at the moment you wrote the note” he insisted “you thought she was that person. But how could you ever be sure of something like that?”

“I was a bit presumptuous back then. And things would have been much better if I had sent her a letter or something” he admitted rubbing his nape. Ty rapidly lifted his head. “Would they?” 

“Yes” Diego firmly said. “She would have rejected me, or I would have told her about Zara and then everything would have been much easier”. Zara was Diego’s ex-fiancée, and also head of the Cohort, the fascist section of the Clave that had locked themselves into Idris some months ago. “I used to write tons of letters for my Tina, but never send them. Now it is way too late” he had the decency to blush “oh, don’t get me wrong. I like both Kieran and Mark. I am just a bit nostalgic, you see.”

Ty saw. He clearly saw the pile of letters in his nightstand, his personal dinosaur. “Why are you so interested, though?” asked Diego “do you have this kind of problem too?” Livvy let out an exasperated sigh. “I may have it” confessed Ty, ignoring his sister “but it is too late for me as well”.

Perfect Diego shrugged “you don’t know it until you try, Tiberius”.

_“Hello, Kit”_

The two single words in the paper seemed stupid. Maybe it was because Ty had been staring at the for several minutes now. He grabbed the paper and made it into a ball, then threw it to the bin. 

“You have dozens of letters waiting to be sent” pointed Livvy, who was making faces to Irene “just saying”.

“Kit won’t care about Scholomance classes and stuff like that. I need to be definite”. He stood up and looked out the window. It was snowing, and a thin layer of ice covered the window glass. He could see some students outside, playing with the snow and animatedly chatting with each other.

“He will” Livvy said “and you’ve heard what Diego said yesterday -you need to be communicative to the other person”. “He didn’t say that” noted Ty without looking at her. “That’s exactly what he said!” exclaimed the girl. She floated above his nightstand now. 

Ty didn’t think Kit would care about the things he had written about. He didn’t know what things he would care about, or if he would _care_ at all. He was having a hard time trying to make out what Kit’s feelings towards him would be. He supposed he hated him for being a bad friend, for letting Livvy’s death ruin their relationship. He could clearly remember Kit’s words. _I wish I’d never known you._ On the other hand he could also hear Perfect Diego’s voice that was almost the voice of his own conscience. _“Things would have been much better if I had sent her a letter or something”._ The snow was falling furiously now, and the few people that were out there had already left. Ty clenched his fists. He had to write something. He had to-

Someone knocked on the door.

“Hey Ty!” It was Anush at the other side of the door.

“Coming.” He opened it, and saw the other boy, all flushed. He carried a small envelope with him. “What do you want?”

“Someone sent you a letter. Ragnor gave it to me. Apparently it’s been in your mailbox for two days, or something.”

“Thanks” Ty bowed. He hadn’t been checking his mailbox much, but he knew his family wouldn’t mind if he took longer to reply to the letters or postcards they sent him. They knew he was busy.

“It’s nothing, man. Sleep tight, Ty!” Anush shot him a smile and left, after winking at Irene.

“Yes, you too”. Ty sat at his bed and turned the envelope over, then froze. The letter wasn’t from the Blackthorns.

“What’s wrongt, Ty?” Livvy asked tensely. Ty didn’t respond. He quickly opened the envelope, his hands trembling. He started to read.

_“Hello, Ty._

_I’ve been meaning to write to you for so long. I didn’t know if you wanted me to write to you. I still don’t know. If you don’t, that’s alright. We can pretend this never happened._

_Things at Devon work just fine. Mina, Tessa and Jem’s daughter, was born a few months ago. She’s like the cutest baby you’ll ever meet. Makes me look like a cool big brother. You’d have to see it, if you want to._

_I know you said some things and then I said some things. They were not nice, so I understand if you’re angry with me. But wouldn’t it be nice to go back to the old us? I miss you, Ty. Please write back to me, or burn this letter and never mention it to anyone else if you are not feeling like it._

_-Watson.”_

The room seemed to froze. Livvy was now reading the letter above Ty, her brows furrowed. Ty was aware of Irene growling loud, but everything he could hear at the moment was the sound of Californian waves, gently roaring inside of his mind. He noticed the tears in his eyes, fighting to go out, and the way his heart seemed to be racing. He incredulously read the letter again.

“Are you okay?” asked Livvy slowly. Ty didn’t know if he was okay. He wasn’t used to experiment such intense feeling, and right now he was feeling it all at once. He didn’t feel like he was going to have a panic attack, or anything. It felt nicer than that. Brighter.

“I need to reply to Kit” answered him. He blinked furiously to prevent him from letting the tears fall. He was still looking at the letter, wondering at Kit’s handwriting, small and bubbly and messy. He told himself there would never be anything to say more brilliant than Kit’s message.

“Isn’t it cool?” Livvy’s face brightened up “I told you he would write. Now you have no excuses to not write back!”

Ty smiled, grateful. He couldn’t quite believe it. _So this is it. This is what I was waiting for._ His loud heartbeats were telling the story of his last few months: the anger, the confusion. The dozens of letters waiting for a signal. He could remember all of that. And yet, it didn’t matter anymore. He felt light. A single tear drop. 

“If I were you, I would send this one” Livvy was pointing at the last letter he had written, carefully folded on his nightstand “it’s the one the most recent. You only have to change it up a little bit”.

Ty smiled. Maybe this wasn’t that bad at all.

_“Hello, Kit._

_I was waiting for your letter. I was afraid you wouldn’t write. I thought you were mad at me. I am a little mad at you. But you are right. It would be nice to go back to the old us._

_I never had the occasion to thank you for your necklace. I know it is important for you. It’s became important for me, too. It reminds me of you. I still don’t understand why you gave it to me, but Magnus told me sometimes smalls gestures speak volumes (Livvy explained that expression to me and I really liked it)._

_Yesterday I saw Perfect Diego. He and the other Centurions came to the Scholomance to give talks and try to encourage us to train and be good students. I really like it here, so I don’t need encouragement. I am learning a lot of interesting things that you would find extremely boring. Nevertheless, it’ is thanks to Diego that I am writing this letter. He made me realise I need to be honest with myself. And not writing to you hasn’t been honest, because I honestly have been wanting to do it since you left LA._

_I also adopted a carpathian lynx. Her name is Irene. She is really elegant, and her fur is spotted with black in some places and on the tips of her ears. She is able to see Livvy, so we kept her in my room. I can introduce her to you, if you want to. You can introduce Mina to me. She seems nice. I am not good with babies, but I am willing to be if she is important to you._

_I am much better with words when writing like this, but we could also meet face to face one day if you want to. I have lots of things to tell you and I guess you too._

_Thank you for your letter. You are a really good friend, Kit._

_-Sherlock.”_

**Author's Note:**

> You might have noticed that the timeline of events is not quite the same as the canon one. In the official timeline Ty enters the Scholomance in mid-autumn, and meets Irene in March. In this fic he enters the Scholomance in September, and receives Kit's letter in February. I hope to have cleared up any confusion!


End file.
